Junior development badminton tournament

SUMMERSIDE -- Three players earned double wins at a recent junior development badminton tournament here at Athena Consolidated School recently.
Dakota Cameron won under-16 boys' singles and doubles; Whitney Gallant won under-16 girls' singles and doubles, and Jesse Cameron took the under-14 boys' singles and doubles titles.
An encouraging element in this tournament was the number of new or relatively new entrants to the sport who showed talent and promise for the future. With all events being held in a round-robin format, new entrants had a good opportunity to test their ability against a number of other entrants.
With two years of experience in the Atlantic badminton championships, including reaching the final of under-16 boys' doubles final with his brother, Jordan, in 2008, it was not surprising that Dakota Cameron won all his under-16 singles matches in two games.
In the crossovers, the winners of each of the two pools, Dakota Cameron and noteworthy newcomer Nathan Brown, reached the final, the former with a win over Greg McGuire 21-15, 21-9 and the latter with a 21-15, 21-14 score over Tyson Arsenault.
Dakota beat Nathan 21-12, 21-15 in the final. McGuire beat his doubles partner, Arsenault, 21-15, 21-13 for third place.

Under-14 singles
In under-14 singles, the Cameron brothers, Jesse and Riley, reached the crossovers by finishing first in their respective pools. The No. 2 seed from Jesse's pool, determined new entrant Colton Gallant, proved too strong for Riley and reached the final with a score of 21-17, 21-11.
At the same time Jesse was advancing to the final by beating another strong newcomer, Matthew Gallant, 21-15, 21-15. Matthew beat Riley 21-15, 18-21, 21-18 for third.

Under-16 girls
Under-16 girls' singles introduced three talented new entrants and spectators were treated with entertaining two-game matches.
Whitney Gallant won all her matches to take first. Jenna Gallant was second and Jenna MacKinnon finished third. Tiffany Cameron, who won under-14 singles over Morgan MacKinnon 21-15, 21-14, also competed in under-16 singles and obtained creditable scores for he age.

Doubles
Under-16 boys' doubles was very competitive and two three-game matches impacted the placings.
McGuire and Arsenault had to go to three games to defeat Brown and Colton Gallant 18-21, 21-12, 21-14 in order to stay in contention with Dakota and Nicholas Cameron for first place.
The match between the Camerons and McGuire/Arsenault came down to the very end, when Dakota and Nicholas rallied to take the last two points to win 19-21, 21-19, 21-19.
Whitney Gallant and Jenna Gallant won under-16 girls' doubles over Jenna MacKinnon and Morgan MacKinnon 21-11, 21-13.
Under-14 boys' doubles had an interesting twist as Jesse and Riley Cameron, who advanced to the final of the 2008 Atlantic under-14 doubles, separated from each other but were both involved in the final. Jesse and Merrill defeated Riley and Tyler Arsenault 21-13, 21-17 to win all their matches. Matthew Gallant and Peter Doiron took third place.


Winners

Winners of the junior
badminton tournament:
Singles
Under-16 boys -- Dakota Cameron.
Under-16 girls -- Whitney Gallant.
Under-14 boys -- Jesse Cameron.
Under-14 girls -- Tiffany Cameron.
Doubles
Under-16 boys -- Dakota Cameron and Nicholas Cameron.
Under-16 girls -- Whitney Gallant and Jenna Gallant.
Under-14 boys -- Jesse Cameron and Nathan Merrill.